Yowza! Yesterday I got to watch my beastly husband run the MN Spartan Sprint down in Welch Village. My sib-in-laws were total rock stars and watched our kids for us while I accompanied Joe to his race in the morning. We met up with them later and Cece and her cousin Michaela even ran the kid race together!

I thoroughly enjoyed drinking my coffee and paparazzi-ing Joe as he warmed up. I mean, this morning was pretty much like a date.

And he was off! (As was his shirt)

I caught sight of him for a couple of obstacles, but it was hard to get close! We’re still waiting on professional race photos and I’m excited to see some more shots of him in action.

Joe made it to the finish line so fast that in typical Rachel fashion, I missed him crossing it. He didn’t even look winded in the least and you would have thought he had gone for a leisurely jog. What a jerk.  Apparently this sprint ain’t no thing but a chicken wing for him.

As far as rankings go, in the competitive group, he finished 8th of 234 overall. For males he was 7th of 191. And in his age group (M 30-34), he finished 3rd of 37.

He rinsed off and then we met up with Cece, Michaela, the Olsons and our other kids for the kid race.

Rosie and Ares were my spectator buddies. Rosie took to sitting on our backpack and eating an apple. Ares mostly slept and got mad when wind blew in his face.

I don’t know much about obstacle course racing, but it would appear that Cece is a natural! She and Joe are already talking about their training plans for next years race and she’s also composing a letter to the Spartans about adding more challenging and upper-body focused obstacles in next year’s kid race, like monkey bars. (Nope, not joking even a little bit.)

Cece asked that Rosie “look with her eyes” at the medal, but it’s sure hard to look with just your eyes sometimes.

I love these girls looking all muddy and proud with their medals. I mean, what else can a mom ask for?

Once more, I’m so proud of these two for being such beasts and a heck of a dad-daughter team. I’m definitely feeling inspired and maybe I’ll even be out there with them next summer. And maybe someday we’ll have a whole team of our little Spartan minions. Thanks again to the Olsons for taking on all of our children, waiting in lines, and braving the crowds with yesterday morning! (And then hanging out with us even more post-race. You guys are the best!!!)